- Microsoft Build 2023 is a three-day event which will commence at 9 AM PT (12 PM EST) on May 23 and go on until May 25, 2023.
- The event is hybrid this year, i.e., it will be held in-person as well as virtually.Â
- This year, Microsoft Build will be preceded by a pre-day in-person workshop held a day before on May 22.
- Microsoft is expected to make waves in AI-related product upgrades, partnerships, and more.
Microsoft’s annual developer conference, Microsoft Build, is just around the corner. It is now in its 13th year, and the first one since the company integrated artificial intelligence (AI) into Bing, the company’s web search engine that has always remained a distant second to Google.
And that’s precisely what Microsoft Build 2023 promises to showcase: the Redmond-based IT behemoth’s AI advancements, among other updates. It comes on the heels of Google I/O, Google’s annual developer conference, where the company left no stone unturned to keep itself relevant.
However, Microsoft was the one that kicked off the race for AI-integrated consumer products either knowingly or unknowingly. For instance, according to a blog post by Yusuf Mehdi, Microsoft’s head of consumer marketing, Microsoft already uses GPT-4, the successor to GPT-3.5, which powers ChatGPT, in Bing. We can expect to see more at Microsoft Build 2023.
Microsoft is also expected to roll out updates for several products, including Windows, productivity apps, etc. Although Microsoft has not confirmed this, but it wouldn’t be a stretch to expect the company to bring AI to its flagship computer OS and other products as well.
Additionally, attendees can expect to leverage API-driven functionality across enterprise products and services and advancements to its Azure cloud portfolio of products.
When and Where Is Microsoft Build This Year?
Microsoft Build 2023 is a three-day event which will commence on 9 AM PT (12 PM EST) on May 23 and go on until May 25, 2023. It will be hosted at The Summit, 900 Pine Street, Seattle, WA.
This year, Microsoft Build will be preceded by a pre-day in-person workshop held on May 22, a day before the event commences.
The previous three editions of Microsoft Build were held virtually, necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Microsoft has decided to continue Build as a virtual event, although this year, the event will also return as an in-person gala, expected to host approximately 5,000 people.
The hybrid event is free for those attending virtually and will cost $1,525 if you decide to attend personally. For the pre-day workshop, attendees must pay an extra $225.
See More: Can Generative AI Replace Search? Users Certainly Believe So
What To Expect at Microsoft Build 2023?
1. Keynote address
The Microsoft Build keynote offers a glimpse into where the chips have fallen, rather, been stacked by the company in terms of AI. Expected to be kicked off by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, the keynote will also feature the following:
- Sarah Bird, AI lead, Azure AI
- Scott Guthrie, EVP, Cloud & AI
- Yina Arenas, head of product, Microsoft Graph
- Kevin Scott, CTO & EVP of Technology & Research, Microsoft
However, perhaps the most important addition to the Microsoft Build keynote is Greg Brockman, OpenAI’s president and co-founder. The inclusion of Brockman sends an important message: we will continue to disrupt web search and possibly other business areas.
Microsoft Teams, for example, is a prime candidate for AI integration, which is reflected with Archana Saseetharan, the head of product for Microsoft Teams Platform, taking the stage during the keynote address.
Others who will speak during the Microsoft Build keynote include:
- Panos Panay, Microsoft’s EVP & chief product officer
- Mark Russinovich, Azure CTO and technical fellow
- Rajesh Jha, Microsoft EVP for experiences + devices
- Scott Hanselman, Microsoft’s partner program manager, and others.
2. Microsoft Build sessions
Microsoft Build plans to conduct several sessions on AI, cloud, data and other technologies. The event will conduct:
- 77 sessions on AI
- 66 sessions on cloud development
- 58 sessions on data platforms
- 57 sessions on dev tools
- 39 sessions on DevSecOps
- 38 sessions on collaborative apps
- 37 sessions on Windows
- 27 sessions on .NET
- 26 sessions on low-code technology
Note that the number of different-themed sessions may overlap.
Here are Spiceworks’ picks for AI sessions to attend at Microsoft Build this year:
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The era of the AI Copilot
Microsoft CTO Kevin Scott and OpenAI president Greg Brockman will take the stage to discuss how the Azure-powered full-stack AI platform can help developers create the next generation of applications.Â
This 40-minute session will start at 9:25 AM PT (12:25 PM ET) on May 23.
Register for this session hereOpens a new window .
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How to build next-gen AI services with NVIDIA AI on Azure Cloud
During its previous two NVIDIA GTC conferences, the American semiconductor company announced a slew of AI dev products and services available over Azure. Be it software, AI models, or computing, NVIDIA AI over Azure promises to “accelerate their data science pipeline and streamline development and deployment of production AI.â€
The session will be hosted by:
- Damian Hasak, director of Azure HPC and AI Solutions at Microsoft
- Jon Coons, Azure AI Global Black Belt at Microsoft
- Adel El Hallak, senior director of Enterprise AI Software Product Management at NVIDIA
The session is scheduled for 11:30 AM PT (2:30 PM ET) on May 23.
Register hereOpens a new window .
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Getting started with generative AI using Azure OpenAI Service
This session will explore how to harness the power of large language models (LLMs) in application development, including “personalized marketing text and imagery, summarizing long-form reports, and building entirely new experiences with customer service chatbots.â€
The session exhibits Azure OpenAI Service, a sign of the strengthening relationship between Microsoft and OpenAI (Microsoft has invested $11 billion in OpenAI so far). It showcases advanced AI models by OpenAI, including Dall-E 2, GPT-3.5, GPT-4, Codex, and ChatGPT, on Azure OpenAI Service.
Microsoft distinguished engineer, Pablo Castroand Dom Divakaruni, head of product – Azure OpenAI, will speak at this session.Â
This session begins at 11:30 AM PT (2:30 PM ET) on May 23.
Register hereOpens a new window .
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Optimize your apps for Arm, Q&A
Windows has been optimized for Intel’s x86 architecture. However, the company is steadily opening up to ARM architecture, evident from some of the models of its Surface line of laptops having ARM processors. In 2021, the company also rolled out Windows 11 with support for ARM64EC, a new application binary interface that enables interoperability between x64 and x86 CPUs.
The ‘Optimize your apps for Arm, Q&A’ session seeks to understand and answer some of the questions developers may have faced while developing ARM-native Windows applications. The session will be hosted by Jamshed Damkewala, principal PM manager; Marcus Perryman, principal software engineer; Paul Lange, principal product manager; and Phani Krishna Maringanti, senior product manager at Microsoft.
This 45-minute session is slated to begin at 1:30 PM PT (4:30 PM ET) on May 24.
Register hereOpens a new window .
See More: AI Pioneer Dr. Geoffrey Hinton Warns Against AI Haste, Quits Google
3. Bing, Fluent 2, and new collaborative app experiences
Bing has already made headway in AI-driven web searches, possibly changing how users extract information from the internet. What’s next for the web-based product is its integration with existing Microsoft services (Microsoft 365, Teams, etc.) and third-party products and services.
Microsoft could be looking at enhancing productivity and user interactions. For example, Teams Toolkit for Visual Studio CodeOpens a new window allows developers to “build a bot that can send proactive messages to Microsoft Teams as well as create a new app for Teams.†This toolkit also enables the development of Teams appsOpens a new window that can be deployed on Azure.
Being a dev conference, Microsoft Build may focus on the underlying technologies that enable these changes rather than how it feels as an experience. However, if you’re keen on the experience part, Microsoft is also conducting a session on Fluent 2Opens a new window (on-demand), the successive iteration of the company’s in-house design language.
Which sessions do you plan to attend at this year’s Microsoft Build? Let us know on LinkedInOpens a new window , TwitterOpens a new window , or FacebookOpens a new window . We’d love to hear from you!
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